Hey Colorado the horse is out of the barn

Colorado passed a ban on high capacity magazines and now they’re paying the price. Two Democrat Senators were recalled and a third was about to be recalled when she resigned, giving the Governor the opportunity to appoint a Democratic replacement. Had she been recalled, control of the Senate would have swung to Republicans.

When the law was being considered, the CEO of Magpul Industries, a premier manufacturer of gun accessories and especially high capacity magazines, told the legislature and the Governor that if the ban was passed he would move his company. They passed it, he’s moving his manufacturing operations to Montana and the company headquarters to Texas. Coloradoans probably didn’t need that thousand or so jobs anyway.

Now, a group of legislators is pushing to lift the ban.

As the report notes, the ban will be upheld this time but there’s an election coming up and it’s time to get Democrats on the record.

With respect to Mr. Sullivan who lost his son in a gun-free zone to a nut-case who authorities knew was a danger to society far ahead of his murder binge in the Aurora theater, you kidding yourself if you think a magazine ban will save one life.

In fact, even a moderately competent shooter can practice and change out 10 round magazines in under two seconds. Changing out magazines won’t reduce the death toll in a mass shooting. In fact, the only thing that has absolutely been proven to reduce the death toll in that type of situation is a “good guy with a gun”. There have been numerous instances where an active shooter has been faced with an armed citizen and the shooting stopped immediately, typically by the shooter’s suicide.

The agenda here isn’t banning magazines. The agenda is banning all firearms and the government confiscating them from private citizens. This is not about protecting the public from “mass shootings”, they get a lot publicity but the actual number of deaths is very small. More people die on a routine weekend in Chicago than from mass shootings. Gun confiscation groups have just used mass shootings as a media event.

If people really wanted to protect “the children”, they’d do what the Colorado legislature is going to consider, arming public school officials and taking down the “gun free” signs. In the recent school shooting event where a student showed up with a shotgun – Joe Biden’s weapon of choice – and Molotov cocktails, there happened to be an off-duty sheriff on premise and when he showed up after the young shooter had gotten off just a couple of shots, the shooter killed himself. If that armed citizen hadn’t been on scene it’s possible that the casualty count would have been very high. A shotgun typically holds five shells and is rather clumsy to reload, but the probability of being able to reload at least a couple of time is quite high in an active shooter situation.

We had a similar situation in a shopping mall in Arizona, active shooter with a rifle was confronted with an armed citizen before he could do any real damage, and the shooter killed himself.

The solution to “mass shootings” lies not in magazine bans or banning cosmetics on weapons – see assault weapon bans – it lies in applying the 2nd Amendment more liberally with open carry and “shall-issue” concealed carry laws.

About Author

Michael Becker is a long time activist and a businessman. He's been involved in the pro-life movement since 1976 and has been counseling addicts and ministering to prison inmates since 1980.
Becker is a Curmudgeon. He has decades of experience as an operations executive in turnaround situations and in mortgage banking. He blogs regularly at The Right Curmudgeon, The Minority Report, Wizbang, Unified Patriots and Joe for America. He lives in Phoenix and is almost always armed.

In 2008 my life changed when Barack Obama came into my front yard on a campaign stop. I asked him why he wanted to raise taxes, and he said that he wanted to “spread the wealth.” Since then, I have gained a national following as “Joe the Plumber” and now travel the country speaking and encouraging other everyday folks to get involved in the political process.